Entries with the tag: jay bouwmeester

Now that we’re a few years into the salary cap, the notion of long-term (5+ years) contracts is the big thing with free agents, yet so many of these teams are hit with buyer’s remorse even one year in the deal.

Scott Gomez. Brian Campbell. Wade Redden. Ryan Smyth. All name players of varying quality, but the anchor of a team? Nope, not by far, but they received contracts like such and have failed to live up to expectations.

(A short aside—if we look at the past decade, including pre-lockout moves, how many of these headache contracts from the desk of Glen Sather? Just sayin’.)

Will this year’s group be any different? A quick review of the available free agents shows a crop of good players but no true elite players. The best players available are great supporting pieces but they’re not the stars of the show, yet you know some impulsive GM will overspend to get their rights. If I could play NHL GM for a day, I’d have a hard time getting into a bidding war with any of the top-tier free agents. In fact, I’m betting that you’re going to get a lot of buyer’s remorse in the near future because each of the top guys comes with at least one significant question mark.

Barring a total collapse from either the Rangers or Canadiens (something that is still feasible) and two straight wins from the Panthers, it’s going to be another year without playoff hockey in the Sunrise/Miami area. So many of us have speculated that making the playoffs set the benchmark for whether or not Jay Bouwmeester would stay or go, and while the whole playoff issue has yet to be settled, it’s time to step back and take a look at the bigger picture.

There’s no doubt that it took about two months for the Panthers to adapt to Pete DeBoer’s new system. And I think it’s safe to say that once the team got it, they were successful enough to make a really interesting run at things despite having shipped off Olli Jokinen over the off-season. So it’s not like this season, regardless of outcome, was a total disaster. In fact, I’d say this was a reasonable stepping stone for this team to come together.

Is that enough to get Bouwmeester to stay? The soft-spoken defenseman seems like a thoughtful fellow, and I’m guessing he won’t make a rash decision (despite the urgings of his seemingly more-impulsive dad). That being said, I’m guessing that a decision about the future of his career depends on more than just the few-point difference between making and not making the playoffs.

-Those marketing geniuses down in the Tuscon, Arizona market show they know how to get someone’s attention during a sporting event. Maybe the Coyotes should consider hiring the minds behind that for some of their promotion. Imagine the anticipation as viewers wonder when the Phoenix Coyotes broadcast just might turn into 30 seconds of uncensored adult material. “Wayne Gretzky just said what?”